Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

5 different _____ seems like something beneficial to RPG crowd too, just for a bit of variety when attacked by a band of ____. Command pieces (aside from horns) are probably wargaming only, but general variety of generic models can only be a good thing.

The giants (fire and frost) are some of the most impressive (to me). Getting to have a good selection of poses (already enough for a large number of skirmish style games). $10 each for a figure that is...well, a giant.

But yes, the issue of how many skeletons you need is a subjective one as was mentioned over there. You might not need anymore, and you might choose Mantic, GW or perhaps WGF instead. However, objectively, customers in general will buy a lot of skeletons. RPG players smash them by the bucket, while most wargames use skeletons as a cheap horde unit. In either case, if you buy skeletons, you will probably not buy just one. ReaperBryan had stated that they are one of their top selling bones figures still.

Also keep in mind that things like skeletons are often one of the first purchases made by someone getting into miniatures. As a result, they often are unaware of companies like Mantic or WGF, and GW has been dropped from a lot of local stores (especially WHF in the US). However (in the US at least), Reaper is in about every game store to some extent. The low retail investment and ease of access means that horde figures in Bones means that Reaper can get those new customers.

Regarding the wargame vs RPG issue...Reaper is owned by wargamers, but their customer base is primarily RPG players. They want to sell more to Wargamers, but that is a bigger gamble because of the costs involved in creating more molds or designing multipart figures. Helping to give Ed the push to do something he wants to do wont be nearly as hard as you might think, though I do believe that a few months worth of sales data on the things that are already going that direction might be enough to push them over that cliff already (I think I know of 15 or so people who are building up army units around things like the giants, driders and other figures that are in multiples now).

 scarletsquig wrote:
^ Hmm, good point, plus the really impressive price points aren't to be found on infantry minis in the bones line, which means it might not be the best thing to attempt as a risk-fre entry into the wargames market.

However large stuff like this cave troll:

http://miniature-heroes.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=653_667&products_id=25848

Is flat-out the most affordable option on the market, which could make monstrous units the best choice to "test the waters" with multiple poses for the wargaming market.

Or, to put it another way, make three poses of that troll and I will buy a crapload. :p

you're right, the big baddies is probably where it's at for bones.
...I'd still like that kobold unit though - no hard plastic options for that AFAIK

I think a fun option would be some sort of warlord- lite bundles. Bundle units of Warlord figures, say anywhere from 6 to 10 figures, toss in a commander of some sort, maybe a quick start set of Warlord rules as a pdf or something, start trying to pull some of those RPG players/ DMs that ordered multiple sets of figures to the other side.

I've bought a fair bit of Reaper's Reptus figures for Warlord, and at most grunt units tend to consist of 3 poses.

We already use a lot of Bones figures for playing Songs of Blades and Heroes. That's worked out pretty well.

If Bones 2 gives us even more variety of weird random stuff, I'll be pretty pleased. I already have a habit of trying to make bizarre warbands as it is.

The question is will they be able to give me as much weirdness and variety for the tabletop as Wrath of Kings will? I hope so.


Maybe they'll give me the goods to put together that gorilla warband I've been thinking about...

 highlord tamburlaine wrote:
I think a fun option would be some sort of warlord- lite bundles. Bundle units of Warlord figures, say anywhere from 6 to 10 figures, toss in a commander of some sort, maybe a quick start set of Warlord rules as a pdf or something, start trying to pull some of those RPG players/ DMs that ordered multiple sets of figures to the other side.

I've bought a fair bit of Reaper's Reptus figures for Warlord, and at most grunt units tend to consist of 3 poses.

We already use a lot of Bones figures for playing Songs of Blades and Heroes. That's worked out pretty well.

This would be something I'd like to see as well.

I wouldn't mind if they just continued to them as they are, but for troop builder units, like let's say the zombie that came out in the very first wave of Bones, that guy was originally part of a group of three. I say when you have figures that normally come in a set as metal figures, carry that over to the plastic. Much easier to troop build and get a bit of sculpt variety that way. Plus, I'd just like to be able to get all of the Crimson Knights, High Elf Royal Guards, and Overlord Knights all in plastic.

 Barzam wrote:
I wouldn't mind if they just continued to them as they are, but for troop builder units, like let's say the zombie that came out in the very first wave of Bones, that guy was originally part of a group of three. I say when you have figures that normally come in a set as metal figures, carry that over to the plastic. Much easier to troop build and get a bit of sculpt variety that way. Plus, I'd just like to be able to get all of the Crimson Knights, High Elf Royal Guards, and Overlord Knights all in plastic.

Precisely. Couldn't agree more

You guys really should get over to the Reaper forums to add your voices to this before it's all nailed down 100%. Even if you don't want to post and instead PM Bryan or Ed etc.

In the Bones 2 thread, they're arguing about whether centaurs should be "sensibly dressed" or not..

I like my centaurs with giant comedy sombrero's on or maybe top hats (top hats always make a mini look classy)

 Azazelx wrote:
You guys really should get over to the Reaper forums to add your voices to this before it's all nailed down 100%. Even if you don't want to post and instead PM Bryan or Ed etc.

In the Bones 2 thread, they're arguing about whether centaurs should be "sensibly dressed" or not..

A discussion as old as time itself. The vocal minority tends to think that sensible armor, clothes, poses and shoes will sell. Speaking with owners of companies and looking at publicly available data...cheese cake out sells those sorts of figures by broad margins. Heck, for Reaper, the #58 best selling figure out of nearly 3000 figures is a female victim on a spit (naked, tied up and screaming). How many of those does a person need? Apparently, quite a few.

Reaper does better than some companies in that regard, but many of the ones who are the "most sensible" end up being overall losses for them when you look at sales versus costs (molds, sculpting, masters and then the actual production). When they have to cast up a full mold of figures for one sale...those extra figures either get tossed back in the smelting pot or have to sit around gathering dust and need to be inventoried ( more costs).

For a high cost of entry material like Bones...those can drag down overall sales a lot.

But, yes...I had heard that they have pciked the first 100 or so figures, and are pretty solid on those, unfortunately I could not get any info on which ones though. Based on my conversation, I was lead to believe that artwork was done for those as well as the general submission to KS. One more meeting to make sure no changes need to be made. Shoot the intro video. Submit the package to KS for approval. Roughly a week and a half to two weeks till launch (barring significant unforeseen problems). Should give them enough time to get things back to business as usual and deal with the various missing/damaged figures from the last KS.

 Sean_OBrien wrote:
Regarding the wargame vs RPG issue...Reaper is owned by wargamers, but their customer base is primarily RPG players. They want to sell more to Wargamers, but that is a bigger gamble because of the costs involved in creating more molds or designing multipart figures.

Quite true. Back when I used to play Warlord at the Reaper factory (yay, my name is in the Overlords book as a playtester!), I remember them telling me that they would love to have more cavalry in the game, but cavalry models don't sell as well because the RPG players don't really buy them.

Reaper do have the depth to provide units to wargamers, particularly if they were to release more of the monsters in bones material so a unit of 3 costs <$10 rather than $22us/$37au each for one metal or $47us/$74au for 3 plastics.

Having a look at their site, they have more than 10 troll models in their range (not counting the orcs etc that turn up for a search of "troll" or the ones who look like ogres).

About 17 Ogres that look the part, including shamans, heroes, etc. (plus those two trolls).

And so on it goes. These larger monsters are aksio the ones that seem to cast better in boneium over small finely detailed figures, and Jason Weibe faces...

Honestly considering using the Fire Giants as Chaos Ogres. Not really cheaper, but definitely better sculpts. I've also got several gibbering mouther sculpts I'm using as chaos spawn. Of course, the vast majority of Bones stuff I've got is for RPGs, as it should be.

Really though, I'm just hoping for the rest of the chromatic dragons to get sculpts. There's a severe dearth of green dragons out there, as well as blues. Reds, blacks, and whites seem to get all the love, and (inexplicably) dracoliches.

Well, I've posted some of my thoughts in the Bones forum. Hope it helps.

Bones is really great for RPG player like me.

 Laughing Man wrote:
Honestly considering using the Fire Giants as Chaos Ogres. Not really cheaper, but definitely better sculpts. I've also got several gibbering mouther sculpts I'm using as chaos spawn. Of course, the vast majority of Bones stuff I've got is for RPGs, as it should be.

Really though, I'm just hoping for the rest of the chromatic dragons to get sculpts. There's a severe dearth of green dragons out there, as well as blues. Reds, blacks, and whites seem to get all the love, and (inexplicably) dracoliches.

Is there any reason you can't just paint any of the generic dragon sculpts green or blue? I'm ignorant of a lot of the various D&D campaign-worlds'/Pathfinder fluff, but there were like 5 different non-undead dragons in Bones 1, so unless Green or Blue ones (and the rest, for that matter) have really specific looks in the D&D world you play in...

 Azazelx wrote:

 Laughing Man wrote:
Honestly considering using the Fire Giants as Chaos Ogres. Not really cheaper, but definitely better sculpts. I've also got several gibbering mouther sculpts I'm using as chaos spawn. Of course, the vast majority of Bones stuff I've got is for RPGs, as it should be.

Really though, I'm just hoping for the rest of the chromatic dragons to get sculpts. There's a severe dearth of green dragons out there, as well as blues. Reds, blacks, and whites seem to get all the love, and (inexplicably) dracoliches.

Is there any reason you can't just paint any of the generic dragon sculpts green or blue? I'm ignorant of a lot of the various D&D campaign-worlds'/Pathfinder fluff, but there were like 5 different non-undead dragons in Bones 1, so unless Green or Blue ones (and the rest, for that matter) have really specific looks in the D&D world you play in...

The coloured dragons do have some distinct looks, some more so than others. Personally I would probably just use "generic dragon number 3" and call it whatever kind of dragon it is supposed to be in the RP, but I can see the desire to have a wider range. Certainly if they are in this cheaper material, and certainly if some of the more obscure dragons are made.

Teasers look to be coming for this one...

Oh good, another Dragon.

Chimera? Doesn't seem to match this one, but you can see the multiple heads.

http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/chimera/sku-down/02674

Yep Chimera. Good spot.
Don't worry Cyporean, you don't actually have to go in on it, or buy any of the add-ons. Rest assured, there will be dragons.

It might be:
http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/dragon/sku-down/03338

Probably sell a few of those to Warriors of Chaos players.

@Cyporiean: You can clearly see the outline of two heads.

They only seem to have one chimera on the store, and this doesn't match the profile. Might be a new one.

decker_cky wrote:


@Cyporiean: You can clearly see the outline of two heads.

I can clearly see one head, and the outline of something else that might be a second head or it might be a claw.

I'd have agreed with you, but to me it look more like a ruff/mane under the neck of the lower one.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Besides, as you noted with some glee, there's already quite a few dragons out there in Bones, and as I noted, none chimeras.

I suppose we will find out soon enough?

I only got a few things last time around... I wonder how many/much I'll be in for this time?

A lot will depend on what comes down the pipe and what/how you play. Just this chimera for example, assuming it is the one (or close to it) from the metal catalog, may be an attractive option as opposed to the GW chimera. I think that one is a bit over 4 inches long while this guy is about 3 inches from heads to tail. A savings of $30 or so retail (and say...$38 with a KS price point) might make you overlook that inch or so as long as the base is the same size.

$38 in savings is already a good way into a $100 pledge package. Couple more of those and the deal gets to be too good to pass up. Of course if you play Infinity or Star Wars or some other game which isnt in a generic style, then you might not be as tempted.

I've just started a 1E AD&D campaign with a bunch of people.

I'm in trouble here!

Meh... I'd much rather they focus on their metal ranges.
I had a bit of a play with the early bones releases from before the KS, I was less than impressed.

Long live metal! \m/